Wizards owner in favour of a hard cap

Although he's been fined for speaking out on it.

Washington Wizards majority owner Ted Leonsis told local business leaders Wednesday that he expects the NBA soon will have a hard salary cap similar to the NHL’s model.

NBA commissioner David Stern said that’s not necessarily true—and warned Leonsis could be punished for discussing private league business. The NBA later announced it had fined Leonsis $100,000 for “unauthorized public comments regarding the league’s collective bargaining negotiations.”

“We’re negotiating and that was one of our negotiating points,” Stern told The Associated Press before the fine was announced, “but collective bargaining is a negotiating process, and that was not something that Ted was authorized to say and he will be dealt with for that lapse in judgment.”

Leonsis, who also owns the Washington Capitals, spoke to a group of Northern Virginia business leaders before the Wizards’ daily training camp session. He told them that the more fans a team has, the more they spend on the team, the more the team has a chance to acquire and keep good players.

“In a salary-cap era—and soon a hard salary cap in the NBA like it’s in the NHL—if everyone can pay the same amount to the same amount of players, its the small nuanced differences that matter,” he said.

Can't see the Players Association being huge fans of that. I'd be really surprised if they got a hard cap in place; with some of the contracts that run beyond the end of the current CBA, could it even be done without setting the cap to some ridiculous amount?

a hard cap would be terrible. it's hard enough trading players as it is.

a hard cap would be terrible. it's hard enough trading players as it is.

It did work in the NHL. But that ended up with hockey players signing crazy front-loaded contracts that would pay them less money during the last years. But it wouldn't work in the NBA.

lol @ the wizards gm. what a fucking dumshit... if he is so stupid he blows $100,000 by speaking out about this, the team has NO chance at being any good while he is in charge!

*The owner did this, though their GM isn't the sharpest tool in the shed either.

lol @ the wizards gm. what a fucking dumshit... if he is so stupid he blows $100,000 by speaking out about this, the team has NO chance at being any good while he is in charge!

Well he was an NHL owner before. Never owned an NBA team before the Wizards, and like I said before the hard cap will only work in the NHL and the NFL

Wizards owner, 101 Things to do for the franchise

2. Reconnect with Gilbert Arenas - Met with Gilbert and connected in person and via e-mail

19. More organ music - More organ music!

20. Eliminate the "Dee-Fence" chant - Done! Eliminated

22. Maintain connection to Pollin family and charities - Continued support for Abe’s Table

26. Draft and develop international players - Kevin Seraphin and Yi Jianlian

28. Change Wizards’ colors back to red, white and blue - In-development

29. Increased emphasis on the Wizards D-League team - In-development

30. Draft more local college players for Wizards - Under consideration

31. Change Wizards’ team name to Bullets - Under consideration

Poor Gilbert.

At least they're honest in knowing their team with no. 20.

lol at 26. Affirmative action?

28 and 31 -

Seriously, nothing on there about finding a way to void Gilbert Arenas' contract?

I love how "In development" and "Under consideration" both get checks in the "Completed?" column.

woot, wizards in bad way since 2007-08 season that they are eliminated by cavs. cavs eliminated wizards 3 years in a row at playoffs, this was the third one.

Badger, the Wizards didn't make the playoffs last year.

Not was he was saying. The Wizards lost to the Cavs in the first round of the 06, 07 and 08 playoffs.